It’s estimated that somewhere around 90% of apps in the app stores are able to be downloaded for free, causing many clients to wonder how app creators are able to actually make money. There are a number of different ways to earn revenue, or “monetize” your app, but no one of them is a silver bullet. The right paid user experience is heavily dependent on your target market, so it’s important to make sure you understand your audience before selecting a monetization model.

We don’t have the space in this post to talk about how to familiarize yourself with your market and competition, but we do provide those insights in our free e-book Inspiring Apps: A Business Perspective on Building Mobile Apps. In this post, we’ll review the most common monetization strategies available so you can figure out the best way to make money off your app.

As you read the options, we encourage you to think about what’s unique about your app and what people would pay for the ability to use it. Likewise, it’s important to contemplate your financial situation and timetable as you select a monetization model – can you initially forego revenue to gather users and perhaps gain more revenue overall? Some models earn more money initially while profits come later in others. Read More

We’ve talked a lot in recent months about developing an app and the basics of app marketing, but launching your app is really just the beginning. There are many things to do to keep your app users engaged, and to keep your app running smoothly, after the first version hits the app stores. Here are some things to consider post v1.

Stay Relevant
While it may seem obvious, make sure your app stays relevant to your users. They purchased your app because it met a need. As their needs evolve, make sure your app does too. Staying relevant could include everything from keeping content fresh, to adding new features, to offering special promotions throughout the year. Paying attention to what features your top users employ can help give insights into areas you want to continue to grow. Read More

At this point in time, over 2 million apps are available in Apple’s App Store (with similar numbers in the Google Play store), but very few have garnered significant revenue. With the proliferation of apps, even the best products need concentrated marketing attention to rise above the noise. Your marketing team has ideally been involved since the beginning, doing market research to identify needs and define objectives. Having a clearly defined value proposition is critical, but what are the key aspects to app marketing? How do you go about getting the word out to your target market?

As you would expect, there is not a singular answer. The digital marketing age is filled with a myriad of promotional options, and in some ways, there are too many choices. We’ll outline a few key platforms often used in marketing apps, but it’s not likely you’ll want to leverage them all. Knowing your customer base is essential to determining which options will be most effective — and which aren’t worth the time. Read More

Potential clients often wonder what’s involved in the app development process. We previously posted about the importance of doing market research before building an app, and we’ve also discussed some of the technical concerns like operating systems and native vs cross-platform development. If you’ve thought about these market and technical considerations and determined you’re ready to build an app, what comes next? At InspiringApps, we suggest a four-phase process.

We love our fitness wearables! Between us, InspiringApps employees possess Apple Watches (with fitness apps), the Garmin Forerunner 220, and a handful of FitBits. The swimmers on our team are looking into Moov Swim to track laps, and some sleep-challenged employees think the Jawbone UP3 that tracks both fitness and ZZZs is worthy of consideration.

We’re not alone in our passion for wearables. A recent report from Gartner predicts that sales of wearable electronic devices will increase 18.4% in 2016 from the previous year. While fitness products lead the market in sales, wearable technology in other industries is causing a buzz too. Several caught our attention in the business, health, and pet industries.

Last month we talked about how important it is to conduct market research prior to embarking on an app development project. It’s critical for success to begin with a clear definition of your value proposition and target customer, as the technical requirements for your app should be informed by market needs/desires.

Once those are understood, one of first technical choices you’ll make pertains to which mobile operating system to use. Will your app be available for Android users, iOS users, or both? Your research may make it clear that your target audience has a strong preference for one device type or the other. If not, you can consider other factors like OS market share or OS upgrade adoption rates.

This is an important decision because the answer influences the development tools used to create your app. iOS and Android apps are written using different programming languages, so an app by default will only run on one platform or the other. In many instances, it makes sense to develop for both platforms. When that’s the case, the discussion often turns to the topic of native vs cross-platform development. We firmly believe this is a topic worth discussing with your app development partner, but we’ll share our experience with you so you have a starting point for consideration.

The start of the new year tends to be filled with resolutions, and perhaps one of yours is to build that app you’ve been contemplating for so long. App development has exploded over the past several years, so if you have a great idea, it is tempting to rush headlong into a project. Before diving into the technical details, though, we encourage you to spend time clearly defining the opportunity, and reflecting it against existing solutions. This is necessary whether your target user is an internal team or a consumer external to your company. It’s even true for gaming apps, as differentiation is always valuable.